WMO/EUMETSAT Workshop on RGB Satellite Products Seeheim, Germany September 2012

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Workshop Resources

Agenda Session 1: Overview RGB Products (RGB Tutorial) Session 2: Integration of RGB Products and Derived Quantitative Products Session 3: Operational Applications of RGB Products Session 4: Scientific Applications of RGB Products Session 5: RGBs from different Imagers (VIIRS, MODIS, AVHRR, SEVIRI, MTSAT, FY-3, etc.) Session 6: Practical Session: RGBs with McIDAS-V

Vlab Live Streaming (Centra) Tim Schmit, Session 2 Carla Barroso, Session 3

Participants

Actions & Recommendations (preliminary) The workshop… 1.Confirms usefulness of standard RGBs as rec’d in 2007; (Annex) 2.Reiterates channel rules for RGB (reflectance in VIS, BT in IR) 3.Recommends combined use of RGB and quantitative products (sat- derived or other, GIS) as a general rule, e.g. animated RGB sequences provide meteorological context for derived quantitative products in operational forecasting 4.Recognizes advances in deriving quantitative products, in particular consistency over time, although challenges remain (e.g. in twilight conditions) 5.Considers RGBs based only on IR channels to be most robust for operational weather monitoring purposes; blended products … 6.Encourages to have consistent and sensible terminology for RGBs, e.g. ‘natural colour’, ‘pseudo’, ‘synthetic’ Action: A Molthan to lead group effort 7.Stresses requirement for continued implementation of relevant imaging channels on future GEO/LEO meteorological missions, recognizing the importance of Airmass and 24-h Microphysics RGBs 8.Identifies the need for increased focus on validation and spatio/ temporal homogeneity of basic data (e.g., surface RGB/ FVC)

Actions & Recommendations (preliminary) The workshop… 9.Recommends standardised use of split window IR um differences 10.Requires to have resolution of digitized radiometric signal of at least 10 bit (in IR equivalent to about 0.1 K), especially for differences 11.Referring to the Convection WG’s recommendation regarding ambiguity, recommends the consistent use of the terminology ‘Ice Particle Size RGB’ for the so-called convective storms RGB product 12.Confirms that RGB colour interpretation should be improved through clear association with features, for example by colour palettes, mouse roll-over pop-ups, icons 13.Stresses that training on RGB interpretation is important and recommends that such training include sources of misinterpretation: limb cooling effect, diurnal variation, emissivity/reflectivity dependency, merits and limits (ash concentration…), sun eclipse effects, colour simulators for specific features (e.g. fog) 14.Recommends that forecaster bench display system retain full RGB resolution (geometric and colour) 15.Recommends that RGB community continue to discuss emerging RGBs, using a wide range of spectral domains (e.g., passive and active MW, space weather, oceanography OC, SST, SWH, sounders); add 18

Actions & Recommendations (preliminary) The workshop… 16.Recommends that a literature review be undertaken on state-of-the-art of operational RGB applications 17.Encourages satellite providers to make available high-resolution satellite in real time, for evaluation, validation and training purposes, and consistent with their mandate and data policy 18.Encourages to explore the use of MW-based RGBs in addition to VIS,IR- based RGBs Final workshop to be published on WMO website, by Nov 2012